For TEDxDubai's conference themed "The Beauty of Small Things," we created an opening title sequence that reframes Dubai – a city known for excess – through the lens of incremental growth. Using an unprecedented timelapse technique composed entirely of satellite imagery, the sequence compresses ten years of transformation across 17 locations into a meditation on scale, ambition, and the power of small beginnings.
Role: Concept. Design. Direction. Animation. Music.
Dubai is known for grandeur. But every tower, every island, every highway began as something small – a plan, a decision, a grain of sand. For TEDxDubai themed "The Beauty of Small Things," we wanted to create opening titles that made that idea visible: the staggering scale of Dubai's growth, revealed through the smallest increments of change.
We partnered with Space Imaging Middle East and DigitalGlobe to acquire ten years of satellite imagery across 17 Dubai locations – the Palm Jumeirah, the Burj Khalifa district, Dubai Airport, Mall of the Emirates, and more. Between 10 and 30 images per location, spanning a decade of development. We compiled them into timelapses showing the city's explosive growth from above – a pioneering approach to satellite imagery that, to our knowledge, had never been attempted at this scale.
Because satellite images are stills, not video, we spent considerable time animating life into each frame – cars on highways, boats in harbors, planes on runways – bringing static captures to life.
The sequence begins above Dubai, watching the city grow. Then we pull back – through the Emirates, the Gulf, the Earth itself, out into space, past planets, through an asteroid field. And then a shift: what looks cosmic becomes cellular. We're suddenly inside, at microscopic scale, moving through what appear to be red blood cells. We pull back further to reveal the small red X of the TEDx logo – held gently in a human hand.
From the scale of a city to the scale of a fingernail. The beauty of small things.
This was a pro bono project, driven by passion. Space Imaging and DigitalGlobe came on as event sponsors in exchange for the imagery. Composer Reiner Erlings – who would later become our in-house composer – wrote an original score that remains one of our favorites. And among those present at the premiere: HH Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, under whose patronage the event was held.
A 2:30 title sequence that set the tone for an event about looking closer, thinking smaller, and understanding that Dubai's present grandeur was once nothing more than a multitude of tiny grains of sand.
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